The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1887-12-13

ScrupuiOusiy KEPT IN view ana vet Win
slight reflection they will not overlook the
fact that they are consumers with the rest
that they too, have their own wants and
those of their families to supply from their
earnings, and that the
| PRICES OF THE NECESsARIEs OF LIFE,
as well as the amount of their wages, will
regulate the measure of their welfare and
comfort.
But the reduction Of taxation demanded
should be so measured as not to necessitate or
Justify either the loss of employment by the
workingmen nor the lesseniDg OF his wages !;
and the profits still remaining to the
manufacturer, after neces-
sary readjustment should fur
nish no excuse for the sacrifice of the
Interests of his employees either in their
opportunity to work or In the diminuiion
of their compensation. Nor can the
worker in manufactures fail to understand
that while a high tariff is claimed to be
necessary to allow the payment Of remun-
erative wages, il certainly results in a very
l.rge increase in the price of nearly all
sorts OF manufactures, which, In almost
countless forms, he needs for the use of
himself and his family. He receives at
the desk of his employer his wages, AMI
perhaps before he reaches his home is
Obliged in purchase for family use of an
article which embraces his own labor, to
return in the payment oil the increase in
price which the tariff permits, the hard
earned compensation OF many days of
toll
The farmer AMI the agriculturist who
manufacture nothing but who pay the in
creased price which the tariff imposes, up
on every agricultural implement, upon all
he wears and upon all he uses, and owns,
except the increase of his |
hocks and herds and such things as
in his husbandry produces from the soil, is |
invited to aid in maintaining the present /
situation and he is told that high duty /
on imported wool is necessary for the bene-
fit of those who have sheep TO shear, in Or
der that the price oil their wool may be in
creased. They of course are not reminded |
that the farmer who has no sheep is by this
scheme obliged, in his purchases of cloth
ing and wooden goods, to pay
TRIBUTE TO HIS FELLOW FARMER
as well as to the manufacturer and msr-
chant nor is any mention made of the
fact that The sheep owners themselves and
their households, must wear clothing and
use other articles manufactured from the
wool they sell at tariff p ices, and thus as
consumers must return their share OF this
increased price to the tradesman.
| think it may be fairly assumed that
large proportion Of the sheep owners, the
farmers throughout the country, are found
in small focks numbering from twenty-five
to fifty. The duty on the grade of import
ed wool which these sheep
yield, is ten cents each pound,
if of the value of thirty cents or less, and
twelve cents if of the value of more than
thirty cents. If the liberal estimate of SIX
pounds be allowed for each fleece, the duty
thereon would be sixty or seventy-two
cents, and this may be taken as the utmost
OF its price to the farmer by
reason OF this duty. Eighteen dollars
would thus represent the increased price of
The wool from twenty-five sheep and thirty
six dollars that from the wool of fifty
sheep; and at present values this addition
would amount to aoOut one third of its
price. Ii upon its sale the farmer receives
this or less tariff profit, the wool leaves
MS hands charged with precisely that sum.
which in all its changes will adhere to it,
until il reaches the consumer. When
into cloth and other goods
and material for use its cost is not only in
creased to the extent of the farmers tariff
profit, but further sum has been added
or the benefit of the manufacturer under
he operation of other tariff laws. In the
the day arrives when the ..
srmer finds it necessary TO
purchase woelen goods and material to {
,lothe himself and family for the winter. !
When he faces the tradesman for that pur-
pose he discovers that he is obliged not S
,nly to return in the way of increased pri- $
,es his tariff profit on the wool he sold, and !
which then perhaps lies before him in I
form, but that he must add l
considerable sum thereto TO meet fur
her increase in cost caused by tariff duty Q
IN the manufacture. Thus In the end he $
$ aroused to the fact that he has
PAID UPON A MODERATE PURCHASE. :
ls a result of the tariff scheme. which, {
when he sold his wool seeued so profitable @
IN increase in price more than sufficient to Z
weep away all the tariff profit he received q
lpon the wool he produced and sold. a
When the number of farmers engaged In u
WOOL raising is compared with all the b
armers in the country, and the small c
they bear TO our population is =
considered when it is made apparent .
hat, in the case of a large part Of those S
Who own sheep, the benefit of the a
present tariff on wool is illusory !; C
md, above all, when it must be \
conceded that the increase of the cost of o
living caused by such tariff, becomes bur i
len upon those with moderate means and =
he poor, unemployed and unemployed, G
he sick and well, and the young and old, v
nd that it constitutes tax which, with 4
elentles, grasp, is fastened upon the cloth r
ng of every man, woman and child in the a
and, reasons are suggested why the re-
noval or reduction of this duty should be Y
included in revision of our tariff laws. q
In speaking of the increased cost 20 the Y
onsumer of our home manufacture, re C
ulting from a duty laid upon imported o
s a. 7.